Story:Kings of Strife/Histories
THE AGES Following are presented the results of a lifetime of research, inquisition, puzzlement, and contemplation by Yhristrover I of Mortis, I who would be King though I was not born of the direct royal lineage. It was to both my fortune and misfortune that I was born a close cousin of former King Kariyas I, he who is referred to as King of Lies after a long forty years of espionage and intrigue within the Mortisian royal family. Kariyas was the one, many much wiser than I have argued, that killed noble Prince Visael IV, direct heir to the house of Visael and next in line for the throne, and this murder was one of the strongest prompts for Kariyas' strange death, which many wise men say in hushed tones was the result of poison and assassination. Young Prince Visael V is but a child, not yet of three (3) years as I write this, so as the closest of age, experience, and blood, the heavy mantle of rule has fallen onto the old shoulders of I, Yhristrover Sonario. I am not one passionate for ruling, yet it is a profession I must pour all of my life into so that I do not go down in history as a wasteful fool that doomed millions of innocent lives. Therefore in the volume of text you hold in your hands I publish all that I have studied for the past thirty-five (35) years of my fifty-three (53) years of life; all of the histories behind the founding and persisting of the Kuronian Age, that which we find ourselves almost seventy (70) years into now. 1 The earliest surviving histories known to man begin with war. I do not know what started this war, nor what it was fought about, and I do not believe most of its participants remembered for very long, either. I do know that in this time of war, it seemed to all involved that the strife would last for eternity, and thus it was known to them as the Eternal War. Being that the war has ended, and we still exist in the aftermath, I shall henceforth refer to it as the First War, though other scholars refer to it as the Sunrise Wars. I shy away from this term because it implies that the First War was a segmented series of conflicts when it was, I have found, simply an extended battle royale between all contestants. It is to my understanding that, at the onset of the First War, the planet we live on housed many times the population which we exist within today. How else, if this is not true, could there exist so many remains and so many scars upon the earth? The main fossil fuel that every nation uses, the odd material known only as Crystarium, originates from the compacted and combustion of human waste, and it is found plentifully across the entire planet. This is only possible because of what must have been billions of deaths, to the point that corpses were simply thrown about and burned, leaving behind that which we rely on for livelihood today. 2 The war must have lasted for at least two thousand (2,000) years, I have come to understand, both from studying the ages of effects on the earth and estimating the amount of Crystarium available to all nations. 3 Unfortunately, I do not have much more I can say regarding the First War, because there exists so little evidence of its long duration that survives today. The only thing that I do know for a fact is that the First War ended - obviously - and that it ended due to a certain series of figures - legends, even - that everyone with any sense knows at least a little about. These incredible figures would be the Seven Morning Kings, their label originating from the often-accepted label of the Sunrise Wars, with the Morning Kings rising and putting an end to war and darkness (thus, morning). I have spent most of my life thus far investigating and researching the origins, actions, lives, and after-effects of these larger-than-life Kings, and I will spend a good amount of my tome from here on out divulging all that I know about them, for it is indisputable that the Seven Morning Kings shaped our world into the way it is today, and their effects will absolutely be felt throughout all of time that is to come. The Seven Morning Kings all went on to form their own kingdoms after ending the First Wars, and the kingdoms they formed have gone down in history as a part of their titles. The Kings are as follows: Sasteryn of Seawatch, Zeruv of Eastern Hydryl, Heruv of Western Hydryl, Leon of Perostria, Maxkriv of Mirajys, Kronos of Brivyn, and my own Visael of Mortis. 4 I am afraid that when the Morning Kings died, so too did the secrets of their various supernatural attributes - their stained black eyes, their extremely long lives, their impossible charisma, their physical ability, and their refusal to be remembered finitely. Being that I am only human, unlike my royal predecessor, I will attempt to relay and understand what I can, but it will never be the full truth. As a historian first and a King later, I will show equal attention to each King, wherever possible, and not show favoritism towards any one ruler. 5 Kronos of Brivyn is perhaps the most universally well-known Morning King. 6 Maxkriv of Mirajys, without a doubt, was both the most morally despicable and reprehensible King as well as the most physically powerful and influential. It is with no difficulty that one can see why he created the largest nation of all the Morning Kings. 7 Sasteryn of Seawatch, a silent yet brave and strong man, created the second largest nation. 8 Zeruv of Eastern Hydryl was a fool, but one who had an incredible tendency to survive mortal wounds. Various assassins took more than eighty (80)(!) attempts on his life, leading his nation to remember him as the King of 99 Lives. 9 Heruv of Western Hydryl, Zeruv's younger and smarter younger brother, was unfortunately not as gifted with longevity as his brother was. Shortly after founding his initial nation, he was killed in a duel, and his challenger took over his country. 9 Leon of Perostria is perhaps the Morning King that is best described by a single word - "bodacious". 10 Visael of Mortis, my own ancestor, was the final Morning King to depart from this world, a mere fifty one (51) years ago. And yet, with his death, already memory of him and all the other Morning Kings have begun to fade quickly from the public memory, uncannily so.